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mnhughes

How do we properly waterproof our deck drains??

mnhughes
9 years ago

We are building a new home (drywall is a couple weeks away) and we are having problems with two decks that are above living spaces. Both decks are built into the roof pitch so they each have a few drains in the floor (because there are no edges for moisture to run off). The deck surfaces have been wrapped with a waterproof Duradeck-like product (except better than Duradeck-- can't remember what it is called), which extends up all four walls at least 6". The deck floors are sloped towards the drains. Everything has been set up to make these decks water-tight but they are leaking around the drains. They have been caulked and our contractor thinks they just need more caulking, however I'm worried because caulking seems to fail over time. When they installed the waterproof deck covering our contractor asked that the material be wrapped down into the drain pipe (which should have prevented the leaking problem), but the metal drain would not fit into the pipe with the extra bulk of the Duradeck wrapped into the pipe too, so a circle was cut in the Duradeck above the drain opening and it was caulked around the edge, then the metal drain was inserted (and I'm assuming it was caulked around the edge of the drain flange). The deck guys insisted that "this is how it's done all the time and it works just fine". Well, it only took one very small rainfall to figure out that this is not the case. Where should we go from here? Does anyone know of a flange-type product that could fit into the drain pipe and be glued under the Duradeck? Do we need to start over, take the Duradeck off, and waterproof it like a tiled shower would be waterproofed? Would this stand up to extremes in temperature? I have no idea what to do. We can't even think about drywall until this issue is solved!

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